A weekend full of History

   Last Friday I went to the old factory of Oskar Schindler. Today it is a museum of modern tras. At the moment they are showing you “Cracow during the Nazi-Occupation”. I am really interested in those things, so I decided to take a look. There are so many impressive things you can look for, I didn’t see anything like this before. There are many original stuff of the WW II. In it, I had a mix of sadness and impres sing. Not impressed by the Nazi-Occupation, impressed by Oskar Schindler. A man of honour. What he did for the Jewish people is for me today unbelievable. I saw many times before in the TV or Internet documentations about him and what he had done, but in this you can see original things of his time and you get much more impressions of what he had done. All the old documents of the Nazi-Occupation were written in German, so I can read all of them. That was near the most shocking moments.

   

   On Saturday, I had a trip to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Before I started my trip, I was really nervous and scared about my reactions to the camp. First, we drove to Auschwitz I. There was a guide waiting for us, we all got headsets and he had a micro, he spoke English very well, so that everybody understood him. We went there in old Barracks, where the Jewish people lived. We have seen how they lived. In Auschwitz I there is also a gas chamber where we went inn. I felt very sick in it. After that we drove to Auschwitz II / Birkenau. That camp is completely different than Auschwitz I. It is much bigger, there are much more Barracks. The German tried to destroy the gas chambers at the end of the war and in Birkenau they were successfull. You only see the ruin of one of them. But that is in my opinion terrible enough. 

   At the beginning of the camp, you can see the railway where the prisoners arrived. For me it was a horrible day. During the trip I said only a few words. But I think that it is not enough to watch some documentations about it, you have to see the original. It was the most interesting trip during my stay in Poland and after that I have much more knowledge about the most terrible part of history.

Contrasts between Spain and Poland

After a month living in Krakow I can write down some contrasts between my country of residence and Poland, where I´m living at the moment.

I begin with the weather. When you think spring is coming, is not for always. For example, last weekend in Krakow were 20º degrees and now I wear my scarf again. Sometimes, these changes of weather make you to have different moods. I recognize that in Spain, specifically Seville, where I live, temperatures are extremely higher (45º degrees in summer). It´s so much but sometimes I miss Mediterranean weather.

I´m surprised walking in the street and see people all the time eating bagels (obwarzanek in polish). Furthermore, they don´t usually have lunch, they prefer to eat bagels, if they do.

Anyway, I have tasted the famous bagels and I can say that they are delicious. I have eaten different types of food here: pierogi, bagels (obwarzanek), soups (Poland has lot of kind of tasty soups).

Of course, Polish people have different work timetables. We can do the same times of work, in particular 8 hours, but polish people don´t usually spend time having lunch or breakfast so they finish their work at 17 or 18 pm. In Spain, we usually having breakfast and lunch, for this reason we finish our work at 8 pm. I can understand Polish people finish earlier than in Spain, because at 17.30 is sunset.

Poland and Spain are different, but Polish people usually are so friendly to Spanish and this city offers many Spanish things: coffees, masses, restaurants, Cervantes Institute…

So if the Spanish readers decide to come here it will be a great choice.

                                                                                                                                             Marta

Laura's surprise

My name is Laura Sontag. I am 20 years old and I am from the west of Germany. I came to Cracow to do an internship for 4 weeks.

The Main Market Square

As I decided to do that internship in Poland, I was thinking about the country, the city and the people. I had never been to Poland before, so I was really excited about my trip. I've been to many cities all over the world, I've seen beautiful places, interesting countries and many different cultures, but I have to say that I am really impressed by Cracow and the Polish people.

The Krakow's Main Market Square is like the heart of the city. I've never seen before such a big market place - all around are cafés, restaurants and shops. There are always so many different people. In one of the first days I sat in a café and watched them.

The city is very alive. Honestly, I did not expect that before. The Polish people are very friendly and polite. They all try to help when you ask for example for the direction. I walked through the city center and the old town, everywhere are small streets, many lovely places and many nice cafés and restaurants. It was a great decision to come to Krakow. I hope to see much more of that beautiful city and I’m sure that I will have a great time here. I will write again about my stay in Krakow and I will describe as good as I can my next impressions and steps for You.

Laura

Marta's first impressions

My name is Marta, I come from Spain and I´m a journalist. When I arrived to Poland the first thing I noted was the weather, really cold. Actually, in Seville – where I come from - never snows, so for me Krakow´s weather in the first March days is really bad and sometimes I would like to change that.  

Paintings close to St. Florian Gate

            I will live here for three months. In Spain, as many other countries at the moment, a lot of people haven´t got any job because of the crisis, so for this reason I decided to begin a work exchange program to improve my labour situation. Spanish journalists have a lot of problems – they are losing their jobs, the situation doesn´t change and nobody can pay for them. In my case, it´s exactly the same. But I would like to live in this beautiful city for a long or short time and work here.

            Krakow... There are lots of things which for me are news, like the history, for example. I think I will more understand Polish people and their culture, when I began to go to museums or visit famous places at Kazimierz (old ghetto). Krakow is a city full of history of World War II. It´s not the same - study many historical books when you are in high school and be in a city and know by yourself. I think that to know completely some place and it's history you must move to them, visit museums, walk for their streets, talk with different people and ask them about their impressions. 


I have been living here for a month and I have met a lot Polish people, who have different ways to see life and we can change impressions, emotions. Actually, I think Polish people are open-mind to foreign people. I don´t speak Polish language, but I can say that polish people have tried to help me when I had to go to the supermarket or the pharmacy. They tried to understand me.

            Finally, one of the things which I like the most in Poland is it's... food. They have a lot of imagination and creativity to cook many plates with a potato or make different tastes of soups and pasta.

Marta